


Something No One Else Can

by prototyping



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Gift Fic, It is now, is brot3 a thing?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 03:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13895385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prototyping/pseuds/prototyping
Summary: Colette had never been one to complain about anything, anyway, but these days she saw beauty in every inconvenience, large or small.[Colette + Lloyd + Genis. My gift fic for the Tales Secret Santa 2017 on tumblr.]





	Something No One Else Can

“Getting low, Colette!”

“Right!” she called cheerfully. She quickly finished packing her latest lump of snow into a sphere and turned to the rest of her small inventory, a dozen fist-sized snowballs ready for throwing. Taking up two at a time, she tossed them underhanded, with care, towards the dip in the snowy ground that Lloyd had made.

“Me, too!” Genis called behind her.

She rotated on her knees and tossed two snowballs in his direction, as well, and took turns between him and Lloyd until her stock was empty. After that she set about making some more, glancing between her busy hands and the two boys in front of her. Lloyd was using a thick tree as cover while Genis crouched behind the low brick wall that sectioned off Flanoir’s small park, each of them hurling snowballs at the other as they hoped to land a hit.

Colette was on “ammo duty,” a role she was more than happy to fulfill, especially since it meant she could help both of them instead of having to go against them or choose a side. She hummed to herself as she worked, occasionally complimenting a throw or giggling when one of the boys overreacted. It was still daytime, but the sky was too overcast to allow any warmth from the sun. The faster she worked, the faster her breathing became and the more her lungs stung with each breath; her gloves were soaked through and her fingers ached; her legs were beginning to cramp from crouching for so long and the very tops of her cheeks, where her scarf didn’t reach, were nearly numb from the frigid breeze that continued to blow, and her lips were beginning to chap despite being covered.

She didn’t mind. The cold bubble in her chest reminded her that she was alive; her sore fingers, though slow, still obeyed her; and when she licked her lips to try and keep them moist, she could taste the air. She had never even noticed that air _had_ a taste. Not until she had lost it.

Discomfort was a small price to pay for having fully functional senses. Colette had never been one to complain about anything, anyway, but these days she saw beauty in every inconvenience, large or small.

“Colette! Toss a few over here!” said Genis. “All at once!”

She blinked curiously, but gathered up a handful of her snowballs and did as asked. “Like this?”

“Yep, perfect!” Instead of waiting for them to land, Genis hurried forward and thrust out a hand. Colette recognized the green glimmer of wind magic in the air, and then a second later the snowballs abruptly reversed direction. Before she could follow them, she heard Lloyd give a startled cry.

“Hey--!”

She turned just in time to see him fall flat on his back, his chest peppered with snow. One must have landed in his mouth, too, because he spluttered and spit as he sat up. “Hey, no fair using magic!”

“According to what rules?” Genis challenged proudly.

“Common sense rules, that’s what!”

“Pfft, _yeah_ , ‘cause everyone knows what _those_ are.”

Both boys looked over as Colette broke into a fit of giggles. “Hey, what’re you laughing at it?” Lloyd lightly smacked some snow in her direction, barely enough to dust her knees.

“I’m sorry,” she said in earnest, even as her bubbly laughter continued. “I’m not laughing at you two. I’m just happy.” That prompted a couple of softer smiles from the boys.

“That’s our Colette,” said Genis, sounding amused. “You haven’t changed.”

She shook her head. “I haven’t, have I?” She sounded -- and was -- proud of the fact.

Lloyd rolled up onto his feet, his sharp exhale visible in the cold air and his grin warm. “Not a bit,” he assured her. “Now how about that snowman we talked about?”

She beamed. “Yeah!”

Together the three of them set to work. Colette started by packing together another snowball, setting it on the ground, and pushing it around to add to its size. Once it was as high as her knees, the boys pitched in to help her and she happily accepted the extra hands. Once that snowball’s size was to their liking, they did the same with a second, and then a third, and worked together to stack them all atop one another.

They found some rocks for making the face, but quickly realized that there were no sticks on the ground for the arms. The nearest trees were too tall to reach even the lowest branches, as well -- at least, from the ground.

“I’ll get them!” Colette volunteered. Before she could focus on summoning her wings, however, Lloyd crouched down beside her.

“I’ll give you a lift! C’mon!”

“Lloyd,” said Genis flatly, “Colette can fl--” But Colette was already moving to sit on Lloyd’s shoulders. She clung tight to his hands as he stood up, laughed as she momentarily swayed from vertigo, and then reached up to break off two of the closest, thinnest branches.

“Catch, Genis!”

He still looked mildly annoyed by Lloyd’s oversight, but hurried to catch the sticks all the same. As Lloyd helped her down again, Colette thanked him brightly. She may not have _needed_ his help -- just as she hadn’t _needed_ assistance in pushing those large snowballs around, as light as they were to her -- but if her friends were willing to give her their time out of kindness, she would always be glad to accept it. She appreciated the gestures for their intent over their practicality.

Together the three of them returned to their snowman for the finishing touches. In the end it was a pretty simple design, but it was _theirs_ , and it towered impressively over them, standing a head taller even than Lloyd. By now they were all red in their cheeks from the cold and beginning to shiver, but no one tried to usher the other two inside yet.

“So what do we name it?” Genis proposed. He and Lloyd both looked at Colette, clearly leaving the decision up to her.

She hummed for a moment as she thought it over. “How about…” It definitely looked like a snow _man_ rather than a snow _woman_ , and the almost perfectly round stones that they’d found for the eyes gave him a good-natured, optimistic expression along with his comically large smile. “Snowvin!”

“Snowvin?”

“Like Alvin! But with snow! Alvin’s a cheerful name,” she told them. “And he looks pretty happy!”

After using some clusters of evergreen needles to make a pattern on the body for clothing, the trio declared Snowvin complete and dressed for success -- and their current limit for the cold weather at its maximum.

They began making their way back towards the inn, but indirectly, taking their time and often getting sidetracked by sights along the way as they chatted about anything and nothing all at once. There wasn’t much to see in this sleepy town, but the boys humored Colette’s interest in the shop windows (and a couple of dogs) that they passed. As they went, fresh snow began to fall in a gentle flurry. She turned her face towards the cloudy sky with a happy sound.

“It’s so pretty and gentle,” she said in awe. “Like the sky’s reaching down to touch us.” She raised her arms to catch the tiny snowflakes in her palms. “It’s too bad everyone else is missing it. We could’ve made a snowman three times that size!”

“Maybe next time,” said Lloyd with a shrug.

Colette hummed in agreement. The Professor and Regal had turned down her invitation politely, but with clear disinterest; Sheena said she had something to do and Colette hadn’t been able to find Presea. When she asked Zelos, the other Chosen had given her a dismissive but flamboyant apology about missing the chance to spend more time with her, reassured her of his fondness for her, and promised to make it up to her another time, all in his usual laidback drawl -- but he hadn’t really looked at her as he said it, she noticed, which was strange for him. In the split-second that he _had_ spared her a glance, she thought his smile wasn’t as bright as usual, and his eyes hadn’t seemed to match it. That expression was rare, at least on him; she’d only seen it a couple times before.

Before she could wonder about that again for too long, Lloyd and Genis had crossed into the inn’s yard ahead of her and broken into a run, eager to get inside where it was warm. “Wait for me!” she called with a laugh.

Inside they tapped the snow from their shoes and brushed it off their shoulders, and then stopped at the counter to order some hot drinks before agreeing to head upstairs. This was one of the few times when their party wasn’t split into two rooms, girls and boys, or all sharing a single large one. The three of them went into the room that Lloyd and Genis were sharing, where they all promptly shed their scarves, shoes, and as much of their damp outer clothing as was appropriate. Then with drinks carefully in hand, they all piled into the nearest bed and pulled the comforter up over themselves, sitting cross-legged in their small fort and hoping to get warm quickly. Colette’s hair clung to her face and arms with static, but she barely noticed. They hadn’t done this since they were much younger; it was already getting a little stuffy, but it was still nice. Being this close to her best friends, with knees touching to complete the small circle in which they sat and depending on one another’s body heat to warm up the space, was a comfortable and trusting feeling.

For a couple minutes she was content to just listen to the other two. Once it was cool enough she rotated her mug in her hands every so often, glad for the heat against her palms, which were finally beginning to thaw. Not too surprisingly, Lloyd didn’t take long to catch her movement. He reached over and set one hand on hers.

“Whoa, hey -- you’re freezing,” he noted with a frown.

“It’s okay!” she assured him. “I can feel them again now.”

He sighed, but a weary smile came with it, too. “You don’t have to overdo it so much, dummy.”

“Yeah,” Genis piped up, “you could’ve told us if you were cold. What if you get sick?”

“I don’t mind the cold,” said Colette truthfully. “Being sick isn’t too bad, either. It means you get to have hot soup all the time! Oh!” Her face grew serious. “And you sneeze a lot, too… but I can’t remember the last time I sneezed! It’s been months!” She gave them both a bright smile. “I’m kind of looking forward to my next sneeze now! So even if I get sick, that’s okay!”

They both stared at her, but their incredulous faces quickly broke into familiar smiles. “You… have got to be the only person who would think that,” Lloyd informed her.

Shaking her head, Colette ignored the _pop-pip-pop_ of the blanket’s static continuing to tug at her hair. “It was so pretty outside. I think catching a little cold would be worth it.”

“Not if Sis tries making soup for you,” Genis pointed out with a small shudder. “Make sure you drink a lot of tea to head it off, just in case.”

“Okay!” Colette promised. Thoughtful and amused, she added, “It’s different to hear you sounding like the older one, Genis.”

Lloyd laughed. “Yeah, did you and the professor switch places or something?”

Genis looked somewhere between annoyed and embarrassed, particularly when Lloyd chimed in. “Hey, who’re you to make a big deal out of it? I worry just as much as you, you know!”

As they shot comments back and forth, Colette fell silent again as she thought on those words. Right. Genis worried, just like Lloyd and everyone else…

She looked down at where Lloyd’s hand still had a hold of hers. His skin was warm and had already heated hers back to a comfortable temperature, but he continued to gently rub his thumb across her knuckles, maybe without even realizing. It brought a softer smile to her face.

“You don’t have to worry,” she told them, once there came a break in the conversation. She felt them both look at her, but she didn’t raise her eyes. “I mean, it makes me happy that you do. I know you worry because you care. But you worry a lot more lately.”

“We all do,” Lloyd corrected her. “That’s how friends are. Besides, you _have_ kind of been overdoing it.”

Her smile turned sheepish. In her eagerness to experience anything she could since returning to normal, she’d had her fair (typical) share of falls and blunders -- whether it was literally stopping to smell the flowers and tumbling down a hill or trying some new foods and burning her mouth on the spicier choices she had dared braving. “I’m just glad. I know it might be silly, getting excited over so many normal things… But I almost feel like I’m seeing some of those things for the first time again.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Lloyd told her. “It’s good to appreciate the small stuff, you know? And besides, I don’t think it’s silly.”

If possible, Colette’s smile grew warmer. All of her friends’ opinions mattered to her, but considering how honest Lloyd was in speaking his mind, receiving that kind of positivity from him meant a little more than it would from anyone else.

“Lloyd’s right,” Genis piped up amiably. “And if anyone deserves the chance to stop and appreciate things, it’s you, Colette. But you’ve still gotta take care of yourself. That’s all we’re worried about.”

“We’ll make sure you don’t miss out on anything.” Lloyd’s hold on her hand tightened, but it was still gentle. “You’ve looked out for everyone else enough as it is. Let us fuss over you for a little while, okay? It’ll make Genis feel better.”

“Stop acting like it’s just me! We all know you get more worked up than anyone when you’re worried!”

Lloyd grinned as Colette laughed. “Thanks, you two,” she said a moment later, once most of her humor subsided. “For… being the same. And making me feel the same.” She hadn’t really been worried that they wouldn’t, but the reassurance was nice all the same. She was still Colette. They were still her friends.

_Even if you’re the Chosen, you’re you._

She wondered if the two of them remembered that conversation from when they were younger. Even if they’d forgotten, it didn’t really matter. They still believed it -- and Lloyd proved it as he wondered, genuinely perplexed, “Why wouldn’t we?”

Colette shook her head with a content giggle. “That _was_ silly, wasn’t it? Never mind.”


End file.
